


The Problem With Assuming

by Penultimate1



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Danzo will be dead by the end, Family, Gen, I'm sure that has never been done before, Kidnapping, Mangekyou Sharingan, Minato and co are freaking out, Naruto will show up later, Sasuke still wants to destroy konoha, Sasuke upon seeing Small!Itachi makes a very bad decision, Sasuke will gladly kill him twice, The EMS works a bit differently, Time Travel Fix-It, TimeTravel!Sasuke
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 22:14:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28927872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Penultimate1/pseuds/Penultimate1
Summary: "Two Mangekyo Sharingans, Tsukuyomi, a time manipulating genjutsu and Kagatsuchi, a doujutsu able to control black flames, were combined on that day. It would have probably been fine had their later aspects merged but regrettably for everyone, and Sasuke in particular, it was the former." Or Sasuke who gets sent back in time decides to kidnap small!Itachi... it's for his own good.
Relationships: Namikaze Minato & Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha Fugaku & Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha Itachi & Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 3
Kudos: 53





	1. Assume Nothing

**Author's Note:**

> I know I already have fic currently running but I absolutely could not get this idea out of my head. This fic features an Au where the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan works just a bit differently and the consequences this brings. Also I don't know how much I changed the events leading up to Madara getting the EMS but whatever.
> 
> I should also note that I wrote this first chapter in a certain style that is not going to stick around. Think of this more like a prologue, the rest of the fic will feature more traditional writing.
> 
> I do not own Naruto, obviously.

**I know I already have fic currently running but I absolutely could not get this idea out of my head. This fic features an Au where the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan works just a bit differently and the consequences this brings. Also I don't know how much I changed the events leading up to Madara getting the EMS but whatever.**

**I should also note that I wrote this first chapter in a certain style that is not going to stick around. Think of this more like a prologue, the rest of the fic will feature more traditional writing.**

**I do not own Naruto, obviously.**

* * *

"Nii- *cough* *cough* Nii-san, don't be too sad for me now, you hear." Izuna Uchiha consoled his older brother even as a trail of blood made its way down his lips.

Madara Uchiha could have been carved from stone at this moment. The only thing showing he wasn't was the faint trembling of his clenched fist. A small gesture, but one which conveyed both burning rage and deep sadness.

Madara simply sat over his brother, saying nothing. What more was there to say? To Madara his sibling was but a blur of color lying upon the battlefield of their clan's latest skirmish with the damnable Senju. A battlefield where Madara and his brother were once again forced to use their evolved eyes to repel their hated foes, wasting even more of their precious eyesight. Never would the two heirs to the Sharingan have thought that their eyesight of all things would have been an expendable resource requiring close management but here they were; two dying brothers, one literal and the other metaphorical, both unable to see the sadness conveyed within the other's ever dimming eyes.

Izuna smiled, or at least Madara thought he did. It was so like Izuna to smile even as he bled out from the gaping hole in his chest. The ground around the two blurred red, and a heavy metallic scent filled the air. Madara was not proficient in medical ninjutsu, no Uchiha were, but he was proficient in the art of killing and he knew with acute clarity that this was too much for even the most skilled healers of the Senju to fix.

*Cough* More blood trailed down. "Nii-san come closer, why don't you? I'd like to see your face one last time." Madara obliged even as the mention of his impending death ripped at his heart more than any enemy kunai ever had.

"Ahh still have that stoic face on, good, I thought you had changed for a second there." Whether Izuna was trying to distract himself or him, Madara didn't know. All Madara could think of at the moment was how he still couldn't see the face of his brother even from this close up. He frowned slightly, his heart sinking even further down than it had already.

His frown was ever so slight but Izuna still caught it, there were times where he was much more observant than he appeared *Cough cough* "Ni-san your eyesight has deteriorated this much? Damnit! I told you to stop fighting my battles, what are you going to do now?"

"..." Madara said nothing even as the trembling in his fists increased. It was so _like_ Izuna to fuss over him even with one foot in the grave.

*Cough cough COUGH!* Izuna turned his head as a large clump of blood came out of his mouth. His breathing turned shallower. Madara was no professional sensor but even he could feel his constantly dimming chakra take a nosedive.

No! It was too soon! It was no longer just his fists which were trembling but his whole body.

"Pr-promise me nii-san." Izuna started, his final request. Madara focused on him, the constant awareness he maintained on their surroundings fell away. It was a moment in time where only the two of them existed.

"My eyes, take them!." Madara's eyes widened in unconcealed shock. "I'm ..going to be with mother now." Tears began to mix with the blood on the ground. "And I...don't want to see your face...for...a...long...time...you hear me…. He trailed off, his spiritual chakra dissipated, his body grew cold, their fellow clansmen came to bring them both back, and through it all Madara couldn't see a thing.

* * *

"Run! He's a monster! Retreat!" Shouted the group of Senju who were overconfident enough to have attacked him, foolishly believing that numbers could make up the difference between their skill.

Madara coldly smiled as his eyes took on a form never before seen among the Uchiha. He had since dubbed it the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan because it was able to continuously use its Mangekyou abilities with no cost to the user's vision. The first time Izuna's pattern bled into his own, Madara was nothing short of speechless; to think the Sharingan held such potential!

Through extensive searching of the clan library Madara had found an instant where a Mangekyo user had taken another's eyes to maintain his combat effectiveness, yet nothing like this had happened. He then proceeded to study it as much as he was able to with his clan's mediocre medical ninjutsu knowledge and the difficulty inherent in studying his own eyes. His conclusions were thus: the EMS was formed by combining two Sharingans _of closely related family_ which possess the Mangekyo. This leads to the patterns combining and the cessation of vision loss as well as a marked increase in the eyes power.

Satisfied with his discoveries so far, Madara recorded the information on the Uchiha's secret records, reserved for future clan heads. He had no desire to spread the information around the compound as there was already a major problem among the clan; every once in a while someone would go and kill their best friend in hopes of gaining the Mangekyo and increasing their power. It was a horrible thing but in times of constant war like this, such a thing was more tempting than one would think. It was exactly for this reason that his ancestors kept things such as Izanami and Izanagi under wraps as it had almost led to the extinction of the clan when one group of radicals began harvesting their fellow clansmen like cattle for their eyes.

Madara was not one to make the same mistakes his ancestors had and thus the secret of the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and its method of attainment would remain a closely guarded one, only known by the clan head and the heir apparent. This in turn led to Madara himself being the only EMS user to appear among the Uchiha. A title which was soon to be broken by a certain avenger.

Little was Madara aware though that this would result in something that would shake the shinobi world to its core. This is because Madara was unknowingly mistaken in his findings. One little known fact about Izuna and Madara Uchiha was that they shared the same Mangekyo ability in both of their respective eyes. This fact resulted in Madara misunderstanding a fundamental aspect of the EMS; it is only in the case that both Mangekyo abilities are the same that it will remove the vision penalty inherent within the form. After all, the EMS is a _combination_ of both Sharingan so it makes sense that when they are the same it results in the ability being strengthened as well as its deficits being removed, but in the case that the abilities differ… Well the results are much more variable, as one Sasuke Uchiha is about to find out.

* * *

At the moment Sasuke was in what any sensible person might call a bout of psychopathy. Not that any would be observer could blame him too much for this. He had just recently found out with the death of his brother that the life he had been living up to that point was nothing more than a lie. That the man he hated more than anything had in fact loved him more than anyone and the man who had truly orchestrated the death of his family had gone unpunished for years.

So as any self proclaimed avenger would, he avenged. That foul excuse for a human being Danzo was dead but not before going through countless of his clansmen's eyes, almost as if the man had intended to deliver a final "fuck you" to the Uchiha. This compounded with the fact that he had to integrate his brother's eyes into his or risk blindness as a teen who valued the strength of his eyes more than any other aspect, well he should be given at least a little slack for not being in the most sound of mental states.

So forgive him for wanting to lash out a bit, especially against a creature as inhuman as that Zetsu _thing_ Madara keeps around him. With a flash, the white humanoid was impaled along the sword of his Susano'o. The creature's screams of pain were ignored as Sasuke pondered his current self. He had just woken up from his surgery and he could feel that his (no, not just his but Itachi's as well!) Sharingan was different. Even under the bandages both eyes felt stronger, sharper, and healthier. For the past few weeks his eyes had always ached from the strain he had put under them even when his Sharingan was deactivated but now the pain was gone.

With a flourish he ripped off the bandaged obstructing his eyes and morphed his eyes into their eternal state. The manic smile that was growing on his face quickly changed into one of fury and confusion. His vision was lopsided! The left eye containing the inextinguishable black flame Amaterasu had perfect clarity while the right containing the ability Kagatsuchi, which allowed him to shape the black flames, was just as bad as it had been before. Had Madara lied to him?

His face took on an unwilling expression, he refused to believe that his right eye would be blinded forever, after all the left one was just fine! Something had to have gone wrong, but yet he could feel that his right eye had evolved as well. Quickly shifting his gaze to the pinned Zetsu he resolved to test it out. Maybe once he used it he would be able to find the problem.

Instantly, the white monstrosity was bathed in black flames. Taking a deep breath to calm the apprehension in his heart, Sasuke activated Kagatsuchi and took control of the flames. What?! Sasuke's heart dropped as the vision in his right eye turned completely black, he didn't know how to explain it but he could feel in his heart that he had just gone blind in that eye. NO!

He suddenly felt a burning pain that almost seemed to originate from his soul. At this, his attention quickly turned to the Zetsu and he bore witness to a horrifying sight. The flames of Amaterasu had turned a vibrant red, the exact shade as the Sharingan but that was not all. The flames were traveling up the manifested sword of his Susano'o that had pinned the Zetsu down. Almost instinctively, Sasuke made to put them out but he was met with a problem. The thing that allowed him to freely extinguish Amaterasu was Kagatsuchi but now that was no longer an option for obvious reasons.

He tsk'ed as he was forced to deactivate his Susano'o but his face soon changed to one of horror. The red flames had previously been slowly moving up the purple sword but now they moved across the rapidly disappearing Susano'o at a speed which not even Sasuke's Sharingan could track!

Before Sasuke could even think of disappearing from the spot in a kawarimi he was engulfed in red flames. He couldn't help but let out an agonized scream at the pain that consumed him. He didn't even feel himself start to fall as he lost consciousness. His only coherent thought being to wonder if this was it. Was this how the great Sasuke Uchiha would go, killed by his own technique?

If any theoretical outsider were to be watching these events unfold they would no doubt notice several details that young Sasuke had missed in the hectic events that followed his use of Kagatsuchi. They would see the black flames engulfing the White Zetsu turn red but instead of acting how any normal fire would, it looked as if someone had taken a photo negative black and white picture of the plant creature. Similarly odd was how the flame didn't actually burn it; it almost appeared as if the Zetsu had simply melted into nothingness leaving nary a trace that it had been there at all. This was much the same for Sasuke himself, the red flames covered him before he hit the ground, changing his color scheme and dissolving him away as if Sasuke Uchiha had never existed in that space. The only thing that would let a newcomer know that something had occurred here was the continuously burning red flame that remained even as it ran out of fuel to consume, ominously burning in the air in a vaguely human shape.

The problem with assuming anything in the shinobi world is that one should never assume in the first place. In a world where alien rabbits are sealed in the moon and gigantic monsters made of pure energy are stored in children. assumptions are insufficient, one must _know._ Take Madara for instance, he assumed that all Eternal Mangekyo Sharingans would be like his, but that is simply not true. Two Mangekyo Sharingans, Tsukuyomi, a time manipulating genjutsu and Kagatsuchi, a doujutsu able to control black flames were combined on that day. It would have probably been fine had their later aspects merged but regrettably for everyone, and Sasuke in particular, it was the former.


	2. Sasuke Is Bad At Comforting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I did a little revising last chapter, nothing too major, just grammar stuff but I did remove the mention of the Uchiha Scroll of Seals, that was dumb and made no sense.
> 
> Another thing to mention is that I did not realize that it took a few weeks for Sasuke's Mangekyo to become the EMS but I think my version flowed better.
> 
> Real talk, I haven't seen Naruto since 2016 and I stopped watching it at the Kage Summit arc, why on Earth I am writing Naruto fanfiction is anyone's guess.
> 
> Thanks for reading regardless!

Sasuke gradually returned to consciousness. ' _Ugh, where am I?'_ Opening his eyes, he was met with darkness. This caused him to immediately bolt upright. His eyes morphing red as he drew his sword. The room he was in was pitch black and Sasuke found that not even the Sharingan could pierce its darkness. His mind whirled as he tried to remember how he got here.

He wished he didn't.

Sasuke's breath caught as he tentatively felt his right eye. _'Could it have been a dream?'_ Sasuke knew there was only one way to find out. He could feel his hands tremble even as they made the sign for a fire jutsu. Sasuke Uchiha was not a stranger to loss and he had long since resolved himself to sacrifice anything for his goal. If he was checking to see if he had lost something like a limb he would barely even hesitate, but this was his eye.

An Uchiha's ultimate pride in life and their greatest assurance from death was their eyes. Even when he was using his Mangekyo every day and his eyesight was dwindling by the hour, a part of Sasuke thought. _'There's no way I could actually go blind, I'm an Uchiha.'_ For a boy who had defined himself with his eyes every moment since birth, it was no wonder he would instinctively reject the possibility despite all mounting evidence. Maybe he was even assured by the fact that if things got really bad he could maintain his eyes using Itachi's, no matter how much he would deny that it was the case.

And now he was here, in a dark cave, with no one around. No friends for he drove them all away and no family for he killed the last one. He wasn't even going to count Madara. Faced with the possibility of partial blindness, it was almost overwhelming...almost. Sasuke Uchiha was many things but a coward was not one of them.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!" He resolutely yelled, before breathing scorching flames. The room was illuminated and sure enough, half of his vision was black.

It took all of Sasuke's willpower not to gasp, which would have undoubtedly led to his lungs being scorched beyond repair. The fireball petered out, returning full darkness to the room. Sasuke just...had to take a second.

He had no idea how long he stood there trying to come to grips with his new reality. Eventually he moved, he knew he could not stay here forever. Losing half of his eyesight was a set back to be sure but nothing was going to get in the way of his goals.

 _'It was foolish to have stayed here for so long anyway.'_ Sasuke berated himself. He knew that this wasn't the cave he woke up in after the surgery. The lack of lighting was a dead giveaway.

 _'So.. how did I get here and where is here?'_ In a single well practiced movement he gripped his forearm with one hand and flowed his chakra through it. Bolts of lightning crackled in the area around his arms, reminiscent of the chirping of birds. The Chidori was undoubtedly one of the most offense orientated jutsus in his repertoire but the electricity it emitted could certainly be used as a light source in a pinch. With his one working eye he scanned the cave.

He zeroed in on the wall opposite of him. ' _There's that Zetsu I stabbed with my Susanoo.'_ Its white body was lying crumpled on the floor with a massive hole in its chest. " _But… there's no burn marks. Come to think of it there are none on me either. What was that red fire?'_

Aside from the body there was nothing else of note in this cave, which was actually something to note in and of itself. There was no indication that this room was one in which humans have tread. Completely natural, there was not even an exit.

Sasuke had no idea how he got here but he had no plan on sticking around any longer. A purple aura was emitted as he summoned his Susano'o. ' _There's no pain in my eyes and my Susano'o feels stronger than ever. That's good, even without my other eye, an unlimited Susano'o is sure to make my revenge much easier.'_ Sasuke was worried that losing his eyesight would have rendered the Susano'o unusable but thankfully that was not the case, in fact, Sasuke could distinctly feel that even if he were to lose both eyes he could still summon the purple warrior, despite how little sense that made.

Sasuke was never particularly one for subtlety, that was always Itachi's thing, so he decided on taking the most straightforward route to getting out of this cavern. With barely a thought, Sasuke cloaked in his Susano'o bored into the ceiling, easily shrugging off the falling rocks as he broke forth onto the surface. His one seeing eye took a moment to adjust to the bright sunlight. He found himself in a forest full of bone.

' _This is Mountain Graveyard, and the cave I just exited from, it's at the exact location of Madara's hideout!? What is going on here?'_ The more Sasuke looked around the more uncanny everything felt, something here was just off. ' _Kai!'_ He flared his chakra but his surroundings refused to change. ' _Not a genjutsu then.'_ Sasuke took a second to plan his next move. ' _There's a few villages near here, I'll go take a look and see if I can figure out anything.'_

Why Madara built his secret hideout so close to an inhabited area Sasuke couldn't guess, perhaps he just thought his cave was well hidden enough that no one would find it, or perhaps he just didn't care if anyone did. All in all, it only took a few minutes of tree jumping to reach the village...or it should have. ' _What is going on!? I know it should be right here.'_ He thought in bafflement. This wrongness he was feeling was getting stronger by the second, Sasuke had an impeccable memory thanks to the Sharingan and he knew that a village should have been here but judging by his surroundings this patch of forest has never housed any humans at all.

Sasuke's fruitless musings were abruptly cut short by a kunai flying straight towards his head. It was child's play for him to avoid it with a simple tilt, he had seen genin with better aim. Literally, he still has several hole shaped scars from Haku and the accuracy of his (her? He never actually knew) needles were leagues above that throw.

But it would still be wise to err on the side of caution, especially in these weird circumstances. As such he drew his sword and activated his Sharingan as he came face to face with a squad of...Kumo nin? In Oto? Were they hunting him for that fiasco of a Kage Summit. Well if they were he would be happy to take the Raikage's other arm.

Once about four Kumo nin surrounded him from the forest with weapons drawn and bloodthirsty smiles he waited for the rest to come out. After a tense moment he realized there wasn't more. ' _Do these morons really think they can take me or are they stalling for reinforcements?'_ With the vision of the Sharingan he could tell that the best among this rabble was merely mid chunin, suffice to say their confidence in confronting him was off putting.

"Well look what we have here, a lone Uchiha haven't seen one of your kind in a while.' Sneered the mid chunin, presumably leader of the group. A rugged and scarred man who had a theoretically intimidating appearance. Too bad for him though Sasuke had spent several years under _Orochimaru's_ direct mentorship, that is to say Sasuke will require much, much, _much_ more than that to even get an irregular heartbeat out of him. "Where's your headband though boy? I thought you tree huggers always showed off that piece of trash." The man continued his embarrassing attempt at getting a response from him.

Sasuke was confused, he wasn't a particularly vain person but he thought his reputation as the last Uchiha had become quite widespread by this point; he would even go so far as to say that anyone who had not heard of him has been living under a rock. Yet this man seemed to have been living so far underground he thought there more than two Uchiha still around.

"F" Suddenly spoke the nin to Sasukes left. "We don't have time for this we have to reinforce Ge."

"Yeah I know, I know." F put on an obvious facade of nonchalance, his fingers twitched. "Hey, how much do you think this boy's eyes would go for? I'm thinking-" As soon as F's finger twitched Sasuke could feel the ninja behind him creeping closer before finally lunging.

Sasuke couldn't help but let out a derisive snort as he spun and decapitated the poor Kumo nin with ease. Their head was covered in leaves and paint but that did not stop Sasuke from seeing the look of shock on their face. ' _Wait, was that supposed to be a sneak attack?'_

As their head hit the ground Sasuke could hear yells of rage around him. All the Kumo nin were on him at once, not that it amounted to anything, like at all. Roughly one second later two more headless bodies were lying on the ground while their leader was screaming in terror inside the grip of his Susano'o. A quick genjutsu stopped that fast.

"Now I am going to ask a few questions and you are going to answer them, are we on the same page." Sasuke was not in the mood for anymore games, he wanted to know what the fuck was going on and he wanted to know now.

"Yes" F drawled with a cloudy look in his eyes.

"What are you doing here?"

"My squad and I were making our way to ambush a reported squad of Konoha nin down south. We were going to loop around them up here and flank them."

' _That makes no sense! Why would Kumo want to attack Konoha just after the Hokage Summit? I thought they were making an allied army or something to take down Madara.'_ Sasuke was confused inwardly but he did not show it on his face. Instead he kept up his cool faced and continued with his questioning

"Why is Kumo attacking Konoha?"

If it was possible to look confused under a mind controlling genjutsu then F certainly looked it. "Because we are at war." _Obviously_ was not said but it was certainly implied despite the dreamy tone.

' _What!'_ Sasuke's eyes only minutely widened, in contrast to his internal screaming.

"How did this war start." Sasuke barely reigned in his tone. Don't get him wrong, he has no love for Konoha but he was merely out for a few days and the alliance had already turned on each other. ' _This must be a scheme by Madara, or was it my appearance at the Summit?'_ Sasuke's attempt at rationalizing F's response was promptly cut short by his reply to his earlier question and the subsequent short circuiting Sasuke's brain went through.

"Konoha's war with Iwa left them wide open and Lord A seized the opportunity."

Sasuke was silent for several seconds, lips pressed into a thin line. "...And how did the war between Konoha and Iwa begin?"

"I am unaware as to how it started because I was doing a deep cover mission when it began several years ago."

"Several years!?" Sasuke's cool facade broke.

"Yes." Was F's monotone reply.

Sasuke wasted no time reapplying the genjutsu as well as strengthening it by several times. "This Konoha-Iwa war began several years ago?"

"Yes." The reply was the same.

Sasuke visibly scowled. "What about Naruto? Where is he in all this?"

F stared uncomprehendingly for several seconds before he finally said "Who?" An interesting fact about dear F is that this would be his final word before he got an expressway ticket to the Pure Lands.

Sasuke pulled out his sword from where it was embedded in the foreign ninja's heart. _'That was going nowhere fast, I'm certain to get more answers from those Konoha nin down south. This will also be where my revenge truly can begin. I wonder how many ninja I will have to kill before Naruto comes running? Knowing him it should only take one.'_ All that was left was a simple fireball to dispose of the corpses and Sasuke was gone, without a trace.

* * *

Sasuke broke from the forest into a wide plain and his expression could not help but contort in shock. Bodies, weaponry and blood were everywhere. As far as even his Sharingan could see. Sasuke had seen many horrible things under Orochimaru but never had he seen bloodshed on a scale such as this.

Just from a cursory glance he could see ninja not just from Konoha and Kumo but Kiri as well. He could not even count the number of smaller villages such as Taki that were among the dead. It was as the shock wore off that he could hear the clash of weaponry in the distance. Naturally Sasuke made his way towards it.

As he got closer to the ensuing battle he could just make out two shinobi clashing, one was an adult and the other was a very small child. Even more odd was the fact that the child appeared to be winning. ' _From the way the older nin moves around he should be high genin at most but that kid is still keeping up with him.'_ Sasuke could not help but appreciate their talents. That appreciation was quickly drowned out by the ice in his veins as he finally neared enough to make out the two's details.

The older nin was a young man sporting a Kumo headband but Sasuke did not focus on him for more than a second because the boy had stolen every bit of his attention. Along his back, embroidered onto dark blue fabric was the Uchiha fan. Sasuke would recognize it anywhere. The rage that threatened to consume him was doused near immediately as he noticed something else. A flash of red.

Sasuke gasped out. "The Sharingan!" ' _This boy has the Sharingan; is this boy really one of my fellow clansmen!? How!? Why!? Is this some kind of trick!?'_ Numerous thoughts flew through his head as he tried to make sense of this.

Upon hearing his exclamation, both fighters turned toward him with their weapons drawn.

' _No! That's impossible!'_ Sasuke didn't believe, no, he _couldn't_ believe what he was seeing. He could barely register anything past the ringing in his ears. The boy looked exactly like a younger version of Itachi. If he had to guess he would say 4-5, he would never forget his appearance. ' _If it was him but it can't be him, it just can't! He's dead, he's dead and gone and_ _ **never coming back**_ _.'_

Though Sasuke was unaware of it, the three ninja were now in a tense standoff. The two who were previously fighting were unaware of what side, if any, this newcomer was on. On one hand he was the spitting image of a standard Uchiha but on the other, he wore no discernable headband, the oddest part of all was how his already pale face practically turned white as he gazed at the younger boy, as if it wasn't a boy there but someone on the level of Madara Uchiha himself.

It was unknown as to what the younger Uchiha was thinking at the moment but the Kumo nin's thoughts went something like this. ' _I don't know what village this new guy is from but I could barely handle this freaky kid on my own, if they join together I'm dead! I have to take one down!'_ The ninja was naturally very fearful, he was blown here from the high level battle between his commander and Fugaku Uchiha of all people; he was under the impression that they were going to ambush a normal Konoha scouting squad, _not the fucking leader of the Uchiha._

' _I have to attack now or I'll never get the chance again!'_ Resolving himself, the Kumo nin moved.

Sensing the movement from his side, the young Uchiha boy's eyes widened in panic. With his talent he was sure to grow into a splendid shinobi in the future, one of the very best around, but at the moment he was merely 5 years old. He was very much lacking in experience and because of that he was taken by complete surprise.

Seeing the Kumo ninja's sneak attack was what finally broke Sasuke out of his stupor. "NO!" Sasuke yelled as he leapt forward with unsurpassed speed, Chidori cracking as it stabbed straight through the enemy nin's chest. His face was still twisted in grim determination even as the light left his eyes, the raging electricity having fried his insides in an instant. Sasuke was only barely able to throw the body off his hand before two more ninja appeared on the scene, one moved to attack him while the other moved towards the unnamed Uchiha. Sasuke had already started to see him as a fellow clansman despite the myriad of alternate and infinitely more probable explanations. He has no idea why he feels so strongly towards the kid ~~he looks like Itachi~~ but he would already do anything to protect them.

As such he immediately parried his attacker and doused the one after ~~Itachi~~ the boy in the flames of Amaterasu. The area was quickly filled with the sound of his screams. The ninja who was on him quickly drew distance though that did not save him from a Chidori Sharp Spear to the chest.

Still on high alert for more attackers, he looked at the two ninja he just killed. Sasuke's face couldn't help but turn ugly as he saw their signature animal shaped masks. _'Anbu, wait no, they're Root! Why are they here? They must have tracked me and wanted revenge or…'_ Sasuke glanced at his fellow clansmen who was staring at him with a pale face, Danzo's arm couldn't help but flash through his mind at this moment. Suddenly, Sasuke heard the sound of more footsteps quickly approaching their location. _'Damn, that's a lot. I could take on as many as can come if I was alone but not with this kid. If they overwhelm me and one sneaks around… It's too dangerous here we have to go!'_

Turning to the child who had began shaking, his expression became soft, "Don't worry I'll protect you." The kids face became even paler. _'Damnit, reassurance is Naruto's thing not mine!'_ He was suddenly more aware than ever of the approaching footsteps.

Quick as a flash he pulled out his hawk summoning scroll and Garuda poofed into existence looking very confused. Wasting no time on his summons behavior, he grabbed the boy and got on the birds back. When they didn't immediately take off he shouted "Anytime now Garuda!"

 _'Finally you damn bird.'_ Sasuke couldn't help but think, as they flew off. He ignored the distant shouts in the background.

* * *

Fugaku Uchiha was racked with rage, guilt, and fear like he had never felt before as he shouted after the man who was flying away with his son. _'This was supposed to have been safe! There were two top Anbu protecting him! Oh Mikoto, I should have listened to you.'_

* * *

Itachi had never been as scared in his life as he was right now, kidnapped away from his father by some mysterious ninja who kept shooting him weird glances. He felt tears start to wet his eyes but he pushed them back. Good ninja don't cry, but he sure wanted to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in case anyone was wondering, the other three Kumo nin were named R, Ai, and Pe. Yes, I know I am a comedy genius, you don't have to say it.


End file.
